This headlong rush to disrupt the service appears to be a political act designed to undermine the nonpartisan economists at ERS who, for years, told it like it is on trade projections, nutrition assistance, farm income, and the economics of rural America.

We should all be alarmed.

Whether it’s these topics or others such as natural resources and climate change, ERS reports can potentially inconvenience an administration and its preferred policies. Indeed, the federal statistical agencies have a long history of producing such bothersome statistical data, upsetting the best-laid plans of both Republicans and Democrats.

That’s a good thing: Policies built on objective data and credible analyses serve all of us by eliminating political whims from the equation.

That adherence to the scientific integrity in the face of incompatible policies may be the reason ERS suddenly finds itself in the Trump administration crosshairs.

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U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue looks at a planting unit made by Precision Planting during a tour of the Farm Progress Show Aug. 29, 2018, near Boone, Iowa.(Photo: Rodney White/The Register)

Consider three recent reports from the ERS. The objective analyses delivered facts that contradicted the administration’s policy assertions on the benefits of tariffs, the need for more restrictions on food stamps, and the growth of rural employment:

In its Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade, published August 2018, ERS forecast agricultural exports to China would decrease by $7 billion because of a sharp drop in soybean sales “due to retaliatory tariffs, which also curb demand for other products.”

Perdue has tried three approaches to undermine the agency. For the second year in a row, Perdue proposed budget cuts to research and analysis for these programs. Congress is expected to reject the cuts this year, as it did last year.

Next, Perdue sought to change the chain of command to make the head of USDA’s research report to the chief economist in his office. That move could have allowed Perdue to exert more influence over the type of research the agency pursued. He recently withdrew that proposal.

Now, Perdue is rushing to move the agency out of Washington before Congress can pass an appropriations bill to block it. Perdue announced the location on June 13 and told more than 500 employees in two research services that they’d have until Sept. 30 to relocate.

Longtime employees with deep experience will seek employment elsewhere in Washington to avoid pulling up roots and disrupting their families. To fill those jobs, the USDA will be forced to fish in a smaller pond, as almost all other federal agencies maintain their research and statistics arms in the capital area.

In other words, this precipitous move seems likely to provoke the very gutting of the agency that Perdue sought through other means.

If this is indeed the result, the real losers in this political game will be the American public.

Government statistics level the playing field by giving everyone — Republican and Democrat, family farmer and agribusiness — the same set of facts.

A small farmer with the same data as a large corporation can compete in the complex international trade environment.

A local agency with a policy-neutral analysis can identify and serve people who need food and nutrition assistance more effectively, and then determine whether the program lifted people from poverty.

And a president armed with an overnight commodity analysis can quickly evaluate whether a foreign government’s proposal in trade negotiation will help or harm.

Perdue’s actions put this critical information at stake and threaten permanent damage not only to ERS, but the broader set of agencies that build our country’s statistical infrastructure.

Real or perceived political influence on the work of our historically independent, autonomous statistical agencies hurts us all. It erodes our ability to recruit and retain the best experts and shatters the trust of people who depend on the data.

Katherine Wallman served as chief statistician of the United States from December 1992 through January 2017.